The LED revolution is treating Veeco Instruments (VECO) kindly as well.. almost as kindly as Cree Inc (CREE). The stock is up nearly 20 fold in just the past year and it’s up another 5% in after hours trading after posting earnings that were ahead of analyst estimates by a penny, while revenues were slightly below estimates. The company reported an EPS of .49/share which is a whopping 323% increase over the year ago quarter. Revenues more than doubled to to a record $163 million.
Those results were already priced into the stock. What’s moving the stock after hours is guidance. The company expects to report an EPS of .78 – .90/share next quarter while analysts were expecting just .59. That’s a big time upward revision and would be a huge turn around from a year ago when the company reported a .15/share loss. They also expect to more than triple revenues over the year ago quarter next quarter to $220 – 240 million. Analysts were expecting $196 million. So, despite being way overextended up at these levels, there is room for more based on that guidance.
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The CEO made some interesting comments regarding its LED business.
“LED & Solar orders were a record $212 million, up 20% sequentially, driven by accelerating orders for TurboDisc(R) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) Systems. We continued to see strong MOCVD demand as an expanding LED customer list ramps production for laptop and TV backlighting, as well as for general illumination.
“We continue to see strong momentum in our LED business. We believe our TurboDisc K465i(TM) MOCVD System has hit the market at the right time, offering high productivity and best-in-class yields. As a result, Veeco has been gaining share and winning business at many of the world’s top LED manufacturers. To date, second quarter business patterns remain extremely strong, with multi-tool system orders being quoted at a large number of customers. In fact, several key Asian customers have already booked sizeable orders in April.”